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Germany’s major automobile companies have published the 2023 salaries of their senior managers. According to the news of the German trade magazine Automobilwoche, Mercedes CEO Olla Källenius (54) in particular made a significant rise. Källenius, who has been at the wheel of the Stuttgart automaker since 2019, earned almost twice as much earnings with 12.7 million euros compared to 2022, when he collected approximately 6.6 million euros. Even compared to other notable German car bosses, the Swedish-German manager was by far the biggest earner.
According to Automobilwoche, the exorbitant salary increase is due to the positive development in the share price. Källenius also benefited from the internal switch to an annual bonus payment method, as in other DAX companies. The Mercedes boss had already announced years ago that he would donate the difference if his salary was over ten million euros. Mercedes confirmed it wanted to stick with it.
VW flower just under 10 million
Oliver Blume (55), president of Volkswagen, Europe’s largest car manufacturer, is the second highest earner after Källenius. Blume, who heads the VW Group as well as its sports subsidiary Porsche as CEO, increased his total salary by almost a third compared to the previous year, to 9.71 million euros. Blume’s predecessor, Herbert Diess (65), had an annual salary of 12.8 million euros at his peak. Exclusive: Blume only gets half his salary for running two DAX companies. That’s why Blume’s assistant at Porsche, CFO Lutz Meschke, earns four million euros, around 800,000 euros more than his boss.
BMW CEO Oliver Zipse (60) also took his place on the podium among the highest-earning German automobile bosses. With an annual salary of 8.2 million euros, Zipse earned much less in 2023 than the previous year, when he earned 10.5 million euros. Reason: In 2022, the chairman of the Bavarian carmaker took advantage of the long maturity of bonus payments, similar to what happened to Mercedes boss Källenius last year.
Judging by the amount of work, Audi boss Gernot Döllner (55) also earned a lot of money: he earned around 1.5 million euros despite starting his new job on 1 September 2023. His sacked predecessor, Markus Duesmann (54), is said to have received around 3.8 million euros. Thomas Schäfer (53), president of the VW main brand (excluding Audi, Skoda, Seat and Porsche), had an annual salary of 4.3 million euros in 2023.
These are the salary pioneers
But from an international perspective, the earnings of German car bosses are extremely modest. Portuguese Carlos Tavares (65), who has headed the powerful Stellantis group (including Alfa, Citroën, Fiat, Jeep, Maserati, Peugeot, Opel) since 2019, has a huge income of 36.5 million euros with all fees in 2023. It is said that he got it. 56 percent more than last year! Mary Barra (62), who has been president of the US industrial giant General Motors since 2014, had a salary of almost $ 30 million in 2022. His salary for 2023 is not yet known. Ford boss Jim Farley (61) has earned around $20 million on average in recent years.
Source: Blick
I’m Ella Sammie, author specializing in the Technology sector. I have been writing for 24 Instatnt News since 2020, and am passionate about staying up to date with the latest developments in this ever-changing industry.
